How To Set Up An URL Shortening Service On Your Domain

19.10.2009

URL shortening means you take the long URL address of a page (for instance the URL for this page) and you shorten it to something a lot shorter (such as http://short.mobile-review.ws/shortURL) that makes it easier to share a page via Twitter, email,etc.

While there are some free services already out there (such as TinyURl or bit.ly), you never know when these services will shut down and leave you with a bunch of broken links. This is why it is a good idea that you set up a similar service on your website so you can keep it for as long as you want.

Using Google Short URLs For Google Apps

If you are using Google Apps for Domains, then using the Google Short URL service should be your first choice. Here is how to set this service on your domain:

Add Google Short Links to your Google Apps Domain.

Open the Short Link Settings and enter a sub-domain name you like. Make sure to delete the example.

Go your domain’s cpanel and set-up a domain with the same name you entered above. It has to be a CNAME domain and it also should point to ghs.google.com

Wait for the DNS changes to take place and you have set up your URL Shortening Service.

Now you can go to the interface and start setting up short urls. You can choose to create a random link or input the alias you want.

How To Set Up An URL Shortening Service On Your Domain

If you are not using Google Apps for Domains, you might want to give Shorty a try. It is completely free and works using MySQL and PHP scripts. Shorty can set up the shortening service from a sub-domain or even from a sub-directory in your main site. In addition, the interface is really easy to use. To install it, upload the files to the server and run the run_install.php file from your browser.